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President-Elect Biden Announces Key Members of Foreign
Policy & National Security Team
This week, President-elect
Joe Biden announced key members of his foreign policy and
national security team including Antony Blinken, Secretary
of State; Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland
Security; Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence;
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations; Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor; and John
Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. The first
batch of the Biden nominees and appointees include the first
Latino and immigrant as DHS Secretary in Mayorkas; the first
woman to lead the intelligence community in Haines; an
experienced diplomat as US Ambassador to the United Nations
in Thomas-Greenfield; one of the youngest National Security
Advisors in decades in Sullivan; and the first Special
Presidential Envoy for Climate to sit on the National
Security Council in Kerry.
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John Jones
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These experienced, crisis-tested
leaders will start working immediately, said the transition
team, to rebuild institutions, renew and reimagine American
leadership to keep Americans safe at home and abroad, and
address the defining challenges of this time -- from
infectious disease, to terrorism, nuclear proliferation,
cyber threats, and climate change.
President-elect Joe Biden
said, “We have no time to lose when it comes to our national
security and foreign policy. I need a team ready on Day One
to help me reclaim America’s seat at the head of the table,
rally the world to meet the biggest challenges we face, and
advance our security, prosperity, and values. This is the
crux of that team. These individuals are equally as
experienced and crisis-tested as they are innovative and
imaginative. Their accomplishments in diplomacy are
unmatched, but they also reflect the idea that we cannot
meet the profound challenges of this new moment with old
thinking and unchanged habits -- or without diversity of
background and perspective. It’s why I’ve selected them.”
Vice President-elect Kamala
Harris said, “President-elect Biden and I know that the
moment we walk into the White House, we will inherit a
series of unprecedented challenges. These crisis-tested
national security and foreign policy leaders have the
knowledge and expertise to keep our country safe and restore
and advance America’s leadership around the world. They
represent the best of America. They come from different
places and reflect different life experiences. But they all
share an unwavering belief in America’s ideals and an
unshakeable commitment to democracy and the rule of law. And
they are the leaders America needs to help meet the
challenges of this moment -- and those that lie ahead.”
* Antony Blinken, a former
Deputy Secretary of State, will be nominated to serve as
Secretary of State having previously held top foreign
affairs posts on Capitol Hill, in the White House, and in
the State Department. * Alejandro Mayorkas, a former Deputy
Secretary of DHS, who has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate
three times throughout his career, will be the first Latino
and immigrant nominated to serve as Secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security. * Former Secretary of State
John Kerry will fight climate change full-time as Special
Presidential Envoy for Climate and will sit on the National
Security Council. This marks the first time that the NSC
will include an official dedicated to climate change,
reflecting the president-elect’s commitment to addressing
climate change as an urgent national security issue. * Avril
Haines, a former Deputy Director of the CIA and Deputy
National Security Advisor, will be nominated to serve as
Director of National Intelligence and will be the first
woman to lead the intelligence community. * Jake Sullivan
has been appointed National Security Advisor and will be one
of the youngest people to serve in that role in decades.
Retired Ambassador Linda
Thomas-Greenfield, a career diplomat, is returning to public
service after retiring from a 35-year career with the U.S.
Foreign Service in 2017. From 2013 to 2017 she served as the
Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, where
she led the bureau focused on the development and management
of U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this
appointment, she served as Director General of the Foreign
Service and Director of Human Resources (2012-2013), leading
a team in charge of the State Department’s 70,000-strong
workforce.
Ambassador
Thomas-Greenfield’s distinguished Foreign Service career
includes an ambassadorship to Liberia (2008-2012), and
postings in Switzerland (at the U.S. Mission to the United
Nations), Pakistan, Kenya, The Gambia, Nigeria, and Jamaica.
In Washington, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs (2006-2008), and
as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population,
Refugees and Migration (2004-2006).
Since 2017, Ambassador
Thomas-Greenfield has led the Africa Practice at Albright
Stonebridge Group, a strategic commercial diplomacy firm
chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She
was also the inaugural Distinguished Resident Fellow in
African Studies at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy
from fall 2017 to spring 2019. She joined ISD in spring 2017
as a Senior State Department Fellow. Ambassador
Thomas-Greenfield earned a B.A. from Louisiana State
University and a M.A. from the University of Wisconsin,
where she worked towards a PhD. She received an honorary
Doctor of Law degree from the University of Wisconsin in May
2018.
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